Bottle caps offer a second life as a toy

Clever Caps bottle-caps, designed by Brazilian packaging company Clever Pack, offer a new environmentally friendly way of reusing caps by having them double as toys.

Rio de Janeiro-based Clever Pack says its caps leave the factory with two lives already, the first is as an effective plastic closure system, and the second as a plastic block that can lock together to create something new. The caps are also compatible with Lego-like building blocks already on sale.

The caps are currently being used on Finish PCO 1881 bottlenecks and have a security seal.

By creating a reusable product, Clever Pack says that the environmental impact is much smaller because the caps do not have to go through the plastic recycling process. The caps, says the company, only leave a small environmental footprint, are economically viable and can be turned into toys for poor children, artistic tools and instruments to encourage environmental awareness.

The company gives various designs on its website for things to build with its bottle-caps including a desk tidy, toy car, key holder and even a stool.

Clever Pack was founded four years ago and has already won a series of awards for its ideas. The company says it aims at a rapid business expansion through licensing national and foreign companies.